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Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

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Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#161

Post by BoredPositron »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #14

If Microsoft is determined to make money from One Drive, could they please improve the product? My work laptop routinely pegs a core doing who knows what. When there is something to backup, the throughout is beyond atrocious. Microsoft has all of the apis available to monitor changes on its own file system. Why does their solution seemingly run naive file comparisons to detect changes? What is it doing burning all of…

Interestingly, OneDrive is likely the only Microsoft QT app. It's amusing that the applications they aim to integrate most into their system are no longer native. Last month, they crippled Windows Co-Pilot by replacing the native app with an EdgeWebView, which has significantly less system integration.

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#162

Post by Fabricio20 »

amanzi wrote: post #50

I'm all for hating on Microsoft for their continued destruction of the local Windows 11 experience, but I actually think this is a good decision. Assuming you're logging in with a Microsoft account, and assuming you have a OneDrive account, it's a better experience to set up the folder backup feature as early as possible in the set-up process. If you really don't want it, it's easy to undo. I still don't like being f…

Except when it doesn't ask you if you want it to do that, and suddenly after investigating why my games are patching slow as shit it turns out my OneDrive is full from game patches that it synced from my Documents/My Games folder and my network speed is being destroyed by OneDrive syncing the patches up every time the launcher replaces a patch file.

I'm all in for automated backups, but let the user know that their entire user folder is gonna get synced and give an option to disable it (opt-out) on the OOBE. Make this optional and explicit.

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#163

Post by dan-robertson »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #128
dan-robertson wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which do you think is the bigger risk to ordinary users? - someone hacks into Microsoft and accesses their files from onedrive (for passwords/blackmail-info I guess?) - Microsoft looks at their files in onedrive and does something bad (not sure what) - someone hacks into their computer and accesses their files. Or someone does so by causing the user to download something bad - the user’s ssd fails or is corrupted bec…

Some of us use documents that should not just end up 'in the cloud' for various reasons including legal, regulatory or just 'I don't want Redmont to have copies of my kids pictures'. It does not even have to be that they do something bad to it. It is merely that the act of taking it without user permission is a major violation of trust.

I definitely see why businesses might be hesitant about such a feature (obviously they could also read whatever onedrive-related contract they have with Microsoft and make an informed decision). I mostly think users don’t really think of this as some stark distinction, though perhaps they should. I still think the real risk of expensive (in the general sense) data loss is worse for users than the cost of this kind of ‘major violation of trust’.

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#164

Post by jtriangle »

II2II wrote: post #146
suby wrote: post #101

This happened to me. I was wondering why my internet speeds were slow when I discovered that Microsoft was in the process of uploading my users directory, they had already uploaded almost two gigs when I realized. They also changed the path to these directories to something like C:\Users\name\OneDrive\Desktop\. Another poster in this thread claimed it's easy to reverse -- I disagree, it's a pain in the ass to track d…

> I understand Microsoft has built up good will through efforts like VS Code, but it's all undone because of things like this. Someone in Microsoft should look into who is making these decisions, why these decisions are are being made, and why they are being received so negatively. Then they need to address them. Even though I'm not much of a fan of Microsoft products, I get the impression that they have some excelle…

Oh, I mean, the "why" is pretty simple. They're going to enable onedrive upload by default, wait until the sync finishes, then change the EULA to allow them to scrape everyone's onedrive for machine learning data that they can then sell.

>>Welcome to hell.

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#165

Post by chx »

suby wrote: post #101

This happened to me. I was wondering why my internet speeds were slow when I discovered that Microsoft was in the process of uploading my users directory, they had already uploaded almost two gigs when I realized. They also changed the path to these directories to something like C:\Users\name\OneDrive\Desktop\. Another poster in this thread claimed it's easy to reverse -- I disagree, it's a pain in the ass to track d…

> Microsoft has built up good will through efforts like VS Code

That's the Trojan Horse

https://ghuntley.com/fracture/

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#166

Post by dontdoxxme »

neither_color wrote: post #140
suby wrote: post #101

This happened to me. I was wondering why my internet speeds were slow when I discovered that Microsoft was in the process of uploading my users directory, they had already uploaded almost two gigs when I realized. They also changed the path to these directories to something like C:\Users\name\OneDrive\Desktop\. Another poster in this thread claimed it's easy to reverse -- I disagree, it's a pain in the ass to track d…

I don't like leaving negative or hyperbolic comments on HN, but this was enraging and unacceptable to me. It's hard to convey without coming off as unhinged You're not unhinged, there's been a fundamental change in internet culture and the early 2000s free internet people are considered loony now. Ive been laughed out of Discord groups(it's what the under 30s use these days instead of chats and forums, and is itself…

I think it’s better to see it as not a shift in culture but understand that the internet represents all culture now. There are still under 30s that believe in real freedom but everyone is on the internet now, rather than a set of people that were more biased towards freedom (as that was partly what the internet represented).

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#167

Post by o11c »

Syonyk wrote: post #24

I'm not the target market for Windows, haven't been for a while. But I genuinely cannot figure out what Microsoft's vision for Windows 11 is. Or if they even have one beyond "idk, shove crap in, meet OKR, get promotion... maybe?" For a while, it seemed like they were focused on making sure that they could link as much of your activity on your computer to you, as a person - witness the ever-increasing challenge of an…

> figure out what Microsoft's vision for Windows 11 is

Never attribute to stupidity what can better be explained by malice. Hanlon's razor hangs a lot of weight on that "adequately".

We know how valuable bulk data collection is, so why would Microsoft ever not mine it?

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#168

Post by timbit42 »

whatever1 wrote: post #72

Meanwhile they have crippled the native file history and backup options of the OS. I was desperate until I found an excellent multiplatform open source project for backups called Kopia! Highly recommended, even entry level users can work with it.

Copying your files to the cloud is not a backup when deleting a file means it's gone forever. What if you accidentally delete some files and need them back? You need a real backup for that, not a cloud.

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#169

Post by pbhjpbhj »

jchw wrote: post #127
suby wrote: post #101

This happened to me. I was wondering why my internet speeds were slow when I discovered that Microsoft was in the process of uploading my users directory, they had already uploaded almost two gigs when I realized. They also changed the path to these directories to something like C:\Users\name\OneDrive\Desktop\. Another poster in this thread claimed it's easy to reverse -- I disagree, it's a pain in the ass to track d…

> It's hard to convey without coming off as unhinged Man. I have felt this way a whole lot lately. I think some people see Linux users and genuinely can't fathom how or why they'd want to go through all of the trouble choosing to use Linux and doing real work on it. A lot of us look back just as puzzled, because when I switched to a Linux desktop for the first time in around 2004, it was definitely a choice, but it h…

Installing a mainstream distro on modern hardware (AMD graphics at least; I haven't tested Intel, Nvidia) is way easier and more relaxed than doing the same for Windows 11.

Then installing apps, even with WingetUI it's far easier on Linux than trying to find and install apps on Windows... God help me, I hope Microsoft have learnt how to actually do window management this time to make all their crap worthwhile.

Re: Windows 11 is now enabling OneDrive folder backup without asking permission

#170

Post by dan-robertson »

the_snooze wrote: post #112
dan-robertson wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which do you think is the bigger risk to ordinary users? - someone hacks into Microsoft and accesses their files from onedrive (for passwords/blackmail-info I guess?) - Microsoft looks at their files in onedrive and does something bad (not sure what) - someone hacks into their computer and accesses their files. Or someone does so by causing the user to download something bad - the user’s ssd fails or is corrupted bec…

What you say is true. And what you say completely misses the point. The problem isn't that cloud sync/backup is (or isn't) useful. It's that Microsoft isn't respecting users' agency to adopt it or not. If the product is indeed useful on its merits, then there's no need to turn it on by default or continually nag users who say "no thanks." And it's not like Microsoft doesn't have a history of underhanded moves to capt…

I think this particular change is less ‘evil’ than lots of the recent ‘evil’ Microsoft things, so I’m not very convinced by comparing it to bad Microsoft behaviour.

I think the big advantage of backups is that they’ll have been on for ages by the time you need them. That is, their main failure modes are:

- not backing things up because of some misconfiguration

- not backing things up because of running out of money/quota/having a card on file expire

- not having been set up

- deleting files you later want to retrieve

I think it’s actually somewhat hard to protect users from cases 2 and 3 without also ‘nagging’ other users. Causing a user to set things up could be a lot better for them than not setting it up because they quickly clicked through some screen during installation. There is some balance to be had and I think that as tech-savvy / high-literacy users, we should expect to feel like it is more on the nagging end of the scale than we would like.

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